MissMeliss: Escribition

Posted By MissMeliss on July 10, 2010

Do you ever walk into one of the rooms in your own house, and suddenly see it a different way? That happened to me the other day, when I walked into the Word Lounge after having my niece and future niece-in-law had been using it as a bedroom for a week.

The two marble-top tables that usually sit in front of the couch were still stashed behind the weight machine (so that the couch could open), which left a larger expanse of floor than is usually clear, and all the office furniture was still free from dust and clutter. As I tend to subscribe to the “clean desk=sick mind” theory of organization, you can imagine how rare this is for me. Not that my desk is ever incredibly messy…it just tends to be comfortably lived in.

In any case, as I stood there, preparing to settle in for an afternoon of writing and recording, I suddenly realized that I’m a little bit angry about our impending move to Florida next year. I mean, I know intellectually that in order for Fuzzy’s career to move forward, in order for us to remain financially secure, this move has to happen, but at the same time, I resent it, and I don’t want to go. I finally have a lovely circle of friends – women friends, something I’m not good at making – and a community I enjoy, and I love my house, and neighborhood.

I think I’ve been spiraling downward – slowly, but still downward – ever since getting the “Florida or Bust” order from Fuzzy’s boss. I’ve been disconnecting from things prematurely. I’ve been much more insular than I usually am. Partly, as I told a friend, this is because I have such a rich inner monologue that I don’t always realize I’m neglecting the outside world, but partly it’s a form of self defense, one I’ve honed well over all the moves I’ve made with my mother, and with Fuzzy, over the years.

There’s a line in one of my favorite children’s books, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil M. Frankweiller, by E. L. Konigsburg, about the stars of the story, Claudia and James Kincaid, perfecting the art of “…being on the fringes, but never quite part of…” the various class groups that visit the museum where they’re hiding out… that also describes my personal relationship style with the general public, and I thought I was finally breaking that habit, and now I can see myself falling into it.

But I don’t have time to dwell on it right now – Fuzzy and I are going to a wedding today that I helped to plan and execute, and if nothing else, I want a slice of cake.

Category: House and Home, Musings | 2 Comments »
Tags: House and Home, Moving, Musings

Posted By MissMeliss on July 9, 2010

I hear the drizzle of the rain
Like a memory it falls
Soft and warm continuing
Tapping on my roof and walls
– “Kathy’s Song,” by Simon & Garfunkel

The rain has been my companion today, when I followed a link that intrigued me and ended up reading lipozene reviews instead of the story I thought was going to be there, and when I had coffee with a dear friend – well, chai, because somehow rainy days are better suited for tea than coffee, at least, if you’re me.

Today was a two-chai Friday, mainly because I’m feeling crampy and hyper and overtired but even with all that less-than-peachy physical stuff – even with freezing despite it being wet and steamy outside – my muse is cracking her fiery whip and sparking so many ideas I can’t keep up, and can only hope there’s enough creative oxygen to keep each ingle glowing until I can give it room to breathe and grow.

(I learned the word “ingle” years ago, playing Balderdash with my parents and Fuzzy over Christmas holidays…or maybe it was just a rainy weekend. I’ve never looked up the etymology to confirm, but if ingle didn’t somehow lead to the word “inkling” to mean a spark of an idea, it SHOULD, because they seem related. I could, I suppose, go look up the etymology now, but where would be the fun in that?)

This afternoon, with my head buzzing from the storm and my eyes wanting to close, I tried to nap, but ended up writing, sitting on my bed, with the room lights dim and the lightning flashing outside, two dogs curled against me, and one gnawing a bone in his crate nearby. It was cozy, and I’d have liked to spend the entire evening like that, but there was a commitment made to help with a task, and even though the rain and my muse were beckoning (bribes were being offered, I think there may have been chocolate and liquor involved), Fuzzy and I left the house, returning after midnight, with tacos to munch.

We settled down on the couch, watched the season premiere of Eureka, and now I’m back in bed with dogs and words, and comfy sweats and while I could babble on all night, instead, I’m going to sip herbal tea, read some more of my fifth Elin Hilderbrand novel in a row, and fall asleep with the blinds open so I can see the raindrops as they get trapped in the mesh of the screens.

Rain is a fickle companion, and there’s every chance it will abandon me tomorrow, but for now, I hear the drizzle of the rain, and I am comforted by its sound.

Category: Elemental, On Writing | 1 Comment »
Tags: rain, words

Posted By MissMeliss on July 8, 2010

“I’m kind of hooked to the game of art and literature; my heroes are artists and writers.”
– Jim Morrison

As part of the July, 2010 project, Cafe Writing, which is back from it’s year-long hiatus, prompts:

In improvisation, one of our exercises is a game called “Seven Things,” in which we go around in a circle giving each other the challenge, “Give me seven things that [whatever].” We are not going to go around in a circle here, but if you’re drawn to lists, this prompt is for you.

Give me seven of your personal heroes. These can be public figures, or personal acquaintances. Have fun with it. As always, explanations are welcome, but not obligatory.

Rather than naming scientists (whether their great discoveries were vaccines, planetoids, or more mundane things like clinicallix), authors, or great thinkers, I’m choosing to keep this list of personal heroes really, really, personal – limiting them to the friends and family who inspire me most. Because to me, heroism isn’t just being brave, it’s helping someone else to succeed even if it costs you time, money, or your own success. It should be noted that this list doesn’t even scratch the surface of the people who support me, inspire me, listen to me…and if you asked me to make another, similar list tomorrow, I could fill it with seven totally different people. YOU know who you are.

1. My mother, because even when we scream at each other, we love each other deeply, and because she’s never been boring, and always been there. And yes, I really do believe she’s fucking awesome, as I tweeted earlier tonight.
2. My grandfather, who was anal about the proper preparation of one’s Tinker Toy lumberyard before play could commence, but taught me how to catch (and kill) blue fish, bake the best raisin bread ever, taste a strawberry fresh from the ground, and find pleasure in something as simple as a stalk of lemon grass or as complicated as a really thick book.
3. Fuzzy, who is the string to my kite, and the other half of my soul. His encouragement is quiet, but solid. (And really, anyone who could put up with me deserves serious medals.)
4. Helen. She’s known me since before I was born. We may joke that she loves “dirty” countries, but the reality is that she followed her heart to a place few modern Americans would readily go.
5. Michelle, my cousin, and my friend. How such a gentle, warm-hearted person sprang from our family, I’ll never know, but she did, and she is, and I’m glad I’m getting to know her as an adult.
6. Cathy, another cousin, more like the older sister I never had. She keeps having life through horrible curve balls at her, and she keeps slamming them out of her way. She’s amazing. And gorgeous.
7. Clay, whom I’ve known online for over a decade, and in person, for about half that, and who is too far away to visit with often. He’s the kind of person who leaves you inspired every time you talk to him, even if when you start talking your in a total creative slump. Also? He’s an improv GOD.

Like this meme? Visit CafeWriting for six fresh prompts every month!

Category: Cafe Writing, Lists, Seven Things | 3 Comments »
Tags: Cafe Writing, Heroes, Seven Things

Posted By MissMeliss on July 6, 2010

If there were an anti-flea-itch equivalent of an acne scrub, I’d be purchasing it in huge quantities about now, because Miss Cleo, poor dog, is miserable. This is the first flea infestation – and I do mean infestation we’ve had to deal with in pretty much her entire life. I mean, she’s picked up a few here and there, but it’s never been this bad. After treating the carpets, washing everything, bathing both Cleo and Perry (who was even more infested – he’s got softer, thicker fur), top spotting them, waiting two weeks, wash, rinse, repeat, we’re almost at the point where there are no live fleas in evidence (Max and Rhett, because they had no contact with Tammy, who brought the critters, are flea free, though I top-spotted them as well), but Fuzzy is covered in itchiness (Perry sleeps under his pillow) while I’m not (apparently mosquitoes like me, but fleas don’t) as bad off, I’m developing psychosomatic itch.

And did I mention these dogs are ALL on the heartworm preventative that ALSO has PROGRAM in it? (Program doesn’t make fleas infertile, but it makes them so that the babies never develop the ability to eat.)

So, yeah, things are itchy and scratchy here.

Therefore, I invite you all to go read my column this month at All Things Girl (click the image below) or browse through all the other great writing (the cover interview, with Margaret Cho, is also mine, but you should read what Deb, Roxanne, Shanna, Lauren, Penny, and everyone else wrote, as well. No, really, you should.)

Category: Dogs, On Writing | 3 Comments »
Tags: All Things Girl, Dogs, Writing

Posted By MissMeliss on July 3, 2010

Fuzzy’s family is freakishly tall. I mean, like over six feet, on average. Last Sunday, five of them (plus one normal-sized young woman who is unofficially engaged to one of the nephews) arrived en masse to spend a week here.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t dreading it – I come from such a radically different background than Fuzzy that I always feel like an alien around them, but, of his relatives, his brother and sister-in-law are the most laid back. It helps that they’re kind of geeky, musical, and big readers. We have overlapping Darmok, at least. It helps.

But even though these are people who find pleasure in things like camping and lake fishing and rv towing, and I think all fish should come from an ocean, and consider “roughing it” to be a hotel without room service or wifi (though turn-down service is optional), we had a surprisingly good time. They liked the food I cooked, there was a balance of them going off and doing things without us, and all of us doing stuff together, and I even sat through a Twilight movie (the latest, Eclipse without imploding.

I even arranged for a women only morning of mani-pedis at the local nail salon, treating my niece, Erin, who will turn fifteen a couple of days before I turn 40 next month, to a super-deluxe treatment, including flowers on her fingers and toes. If she spent much of the week hiding in trashy romance novels and skulking behind her baseball cap, I can’t really blame her – she’s the baby, the only girl, and was the only real kid on the trip – her next oldest brother graduated from high school in May.

But she bonded with my dogs, and I had a special gift waiting for her, and overall, it was good week, with lots of teasing and laughter and game-playing (we got them addicted to Fluxx) and they even left my kitchen sparkly clean, and emptied all the upstairs trash before leaving at seven this morning, in the rain.

And now, my house feels big and empty.
Deliciously so.

Category: Family, Fuzzy | 1 Comment »
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Posted By MissMeliss on June 30, 2010

Driving into Dallas today, to visit the science and nature museum, I fell asleep, so it’s a good thing no one was pointing Cobra radar detectors at us, because Fuzzy likes to go fast, and I often feel obligated to remind him that we will not, in fact, jump through time if we push our Forester to 88 MPH during a thunderstorm.

I’ve had a very sleepy day actually.

I didn’t sleep well last night – I’m not sure why. It might have been because our foster pup peed on the bed twice, and I had to do emergency laundry, or it might be that even though we’re having a great time with Chris’s family, I’m still tense – as I am whenever there’s company here. I mean, I like people, but I’m really glad I have my huge bedroom to retreat to, because I only like people in limited quantities.

The last couple of days have been wet, gray and stormy. Internet is glitchy, but that may be because there are three additional laptops using it at the moment. No one’s been able to swim.

The museum, however was fun – especially since TeenG turned out to be the planetarium presenter today. That was a lovely surprise, though I think our appearance without warning threw him off his game a little. Still, he did a great job, and I’m really proud of him.

We went out to a great burger joint, after, and I realized, again, that I still haven’t explored Dallas enough. We need to start doing that before next year when we leave.

And on the way home, once again, I fell asleep in the car.

Category: Blog | Comments Off
Tags: burgers, dallas, Family

Posted By MissMeliss on June 30, 2010

“I’ll give you stars and the moon and the open highway
And a river beneath your feet
I’ll give you days full of dreams if you travel my way
And a summer you can’t repeat.
I’ll give you nights full of passion and days of adventure,
No strings, just warm summer rain.”
And I thought, “You know, I’d rather have champagne.”
– “Stars and the Moon,” Jason Robert Brown

I like rain. I especially like warm summer rain, because even though it soaks all the outdoor pillows, it’s gentle when it wets your skin, teasing you the way winter rain cannot. Summer rain is seductive. Winter rain is a weapon.

However, what I don’t like is that summer rain increases the number of mosquitoes in my back yard, hovering near my pool (why, I don’t know – you’d think they’d be wet enough), and causing the water level to rise to the point where it’s too high for the filter to work correctly, which means the pool has pale, translucent skin of dead mosquitoes on it in the morning.

Do mosquitoes even serve a useful function? I mean spiders eat insects, but there are more insects than just mosquitoes, and geckos are perfectly content to munch ant eggs, and all…so…do they actually have a function within our ecosystem that extends beyond being annoying little bloodsucking creatures? I really want to know. It h

*Le sigh*

I hadn’t intended to talk about bugs this morning. Just thinking about them is making me itchy, and I don’t like being itchy.

So what else?

Oh, right, there are five freakishly tall relatives of Fuzzy staying at my house right now, and one normal-sized young woman who is not a relative (yet). There’s no formal announcement, or anything, but I suspect a wedding is happening next year when they both finish college.

I was worried about this week, but so far, it’s been pretty cool. The boys have grown into charming and intelligent young men, and if they’re still very sheltered and a bit naive about world politics and – I have to say it – overwhelmingly conservative in their personal views – at least they are open to discussion, and help with the dishes, and like the dogs. My niece is fifteen (almost), and comes with all the whining and angst associated with that age. It’s funny actually, because even though she’s got a strong SoDak accent her vocabulary of choice and tone of voice make her sound like a valley girl. This should annoy me, but instead it makes me laugh.

And today? Today, we’re all getting pedicures – well, my sister-in-law, niece, and The Girl, whom I quite like, and not solely because she’s NOT freakishly tall.

But…

There are moments when I’d rather be sipping champagne (these people don’t DRINK. It’s not normal.) Or…to hell with champagne. Give me a margarita.

Category: Family | 2 Comments »
Tags: Family

Posted By MissMeliss on June 25, 2010

My mother, who has more creativity in one strand of hair than I will ever possess, or at least, more than I can ever channel, has started a new website. It’s called Sewing Insider, and she needs essays, stories, reviews, and videos from people who sew to help flesh out her content.

I don’t actually sew.

I mean, she gave me this amazing sewing machine, and so far I’ve managed to use it to…hem pants.

Okay, one might argue that hemming your own pants is pretty cool; but it’s not the sewing of the hem that makes it so, it’s the ability to accurately mark a hem without help from another person.

Or so I’m told.

My mother, on the other hand, is amazing. After my grandfather died, she took his old designer ties and turned them into pillows shaped like fish, using the pointy ends of the ties to form the scales. They were cool fish pillows. It was a great way to remember him. (I should point out that while I do have a fish pillow of my very own, it was NOT made with ties, but with normal fabric. Okay, it’s silky, shiny, brightly colored fabric, and she made it at least three years before his death, but still…)

Who else would even think of that?

So, if you’re reading this, and if you’re a home sewer, or otherwise involved in fiber arts, go check out my mom’s page…. It’s new, and still evolving, but it’s worth a read.

Even if you’ve never been the recipient of a fish pillow made of ties.

Category: Family | Comments Off
Tags: mom, shameless promotion

Posted By MissMeliss on June 18, 2010

We are watching the Tim Burton/Disney Alice movie on DVD tonight, having missed it in theaters earlier this year. We wanted to go, but never quite managed. I can’t decide if I like it or not, but I do like Alan Rickman as the voice of the blue caterpillar.

I’ve read Carroll’s originals, of course, but now I want to read them again. It’s a good think I hoard books the way dragons hoard gold bullion and other baubles, because it means I’ve only to climb the stairs to find my favorite version, The Annotated Alice, which isn’t quite as wonderful as The Annotated Dracula, but is pretty nifty nevertheless.

Maybe it’s because I’m on painkillers that it’s easy for me to drift back into nostalgia, but watching this makes me remember another version of Alice, the one that the kids from the old (ancient!) PBS show “Zoom” did, when I was kid. To this day, I prefer “twinkle twinkle little BAT” over “twinkle twinkle little star.”

Tangentially, when I was six or seven, I wanted to BE on ZOOM. Sadly, we lived in Colorado at the time, and it was made in Boston.

But, for others who grew up watching PBS in the 70s, here’s the season two opening credits (thanks, YouTube)…I always wanted to be able to do Bernadette’s “arm thing.”

Category: Geekery and Other Habits, Nostalgia | Comments Off
Tags: Geekery, Nostalgia, ZOOM

Posted By MissMeliss on June 18, 2010

Dental work is one way to ensure quick weight loss, though I wouldn’t recommend it to just anyone. I’ve had a lot of work done on my mouth this year, but I’m pleased to announce that, with the exception of having a temporary crown fitted after the 4th of July, I am done until January. There’s more to do, but I’ve used up my insurance benefits, and nothing else is in dire need of fixing. I’m not complaining about the break.

My mouth is still really sore, however, though that’s receding. I’ve been using the Darvocet that I was given – four pills left, no refill – but it’s giving me an allergic reaction – I’m so ITCHY. Ibuprofen does nothing for the pain, nor does acetaminophen, but I’m hoping I’ll be normal by the time the heavy drugs are gone.

The upside, of course, is that drugs like Darvocet give me really, really cool dreams. Most of them are the kind where I’m not certain whether I’m awake or asleep, but they’ve been interesting nevertheless. No sex dreams (melatonin provides those), but really great stories, and I wake entertained, if not pain-free.

It could be worse.

Category: Dream | Comments Off
Tags: Dental, Dreaming